1. Field of the Invention
The invention comprises a small, portable, hand held apparatus that can read, store and faithfully reproduce optical images.
2. Need for a Hand Held Copier--or Microcopier
There is need for an instrument that can copy and reproduce a few lines of text and that would be small enough to carry in the pocket of the user. The instrument could be like a pen or a pencil, with one end reading the matter to be copied and the other end reproducing the matter that has been read.
The uses for such an instrument would be many. For example, think how often one needs to copy a name or an address including accurate spelling, street and code numbers, telephone numbers with area codes, etc. The common method is to merely re-write what has already been written. Re-writing of textual material creates mistakes, especially when done in a hurry. Another example of need is cooking recipes which are not very long, but which need to be copied accurately. A very important need is for references to articles or books. In a library it is a great chore to copy the name of the author, the title, the publisher, the journal name, volume number, date, etc., particularly if this has to be done many times. Generally, a great deal of time spent in research is used merely in the copying of references from various different sources. Another important need that would be filled by such a small instrument is from employees of post offices or other large organizations where it is necesssary to copy names and addresses or other data presented by the public. Filling out forms is another laborious task. Frequently it is necessary to write the same information over and over again. A handy way to meet this task would be to store the information in a hand held instrument from which the data can be quickly retrieved. It would also be useful if such a device would handle printed, typewritten, handwritten or graphical information (such as Japanese and Chinese Ideograms). It also would be desirable if such an instrument could be held in the hand. It also should be self powered if possible.
A conventional photocopier fulfills some of the needs described above. It is clear that there is a great need for a hand held copier--a microcopier--capable of reproducing parts of or whole documents. The present invention fullfils this need. There are several desirable implementations all including means to read, store and reproduct optical images.
3. Description of the Prior Art
The following patents have been reviewed and are believed to be relevant to the invention. In order to improve the clarity of the disclosure the most relevant patents are discussed in juxtaposition with the relevant structure in the portion of this disclosure entitled "Detailed Description of the Invention". Those patents include the following:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,417,234, 3,784,794, 3,868,514, 3,918,028, 3,976,973, 3,985,999, 4,115,703, 4,143,809, 3,496,333, 3,501,615, 3,515,850, 3,601,669, 3,609,294, 3,632,969, 3,700,852, 3,769,562, 3,777,116, 3,811,030, 3,813,513, 3,814,897, 3,852,563, 3,862,394, 3,903,393, 3,913,091, 3,973,111, 3,982,093, 3,984,844, 3,988,569, 4,007,352, 4,020,465, 4,027,311, 4,030,408, 4,034,187, 4,105,892, 4,110,598, 4,136,274, 4,138,605, 4,141,017, 4,203,025, 4,206,541, 4,242,565. PA1 IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin "Document Reader and Printer" L. L. Wu Vol. 16, No. 11, April, 1974; PA1 Yamazaki & Terashima "A Low Power Thermal Head Realizing High Quality" 1978 Components Conference Proceeding pp 264-270; PA1 Shibata et al "A New Type of Thermal Head with Thin Films" 26th Electronics Circuits Conference, San Francisco, CA April 1978 pp 177-185 of Proceedings; PA1 Payne & Plumee "Thermal Printer" J of Solid-State Circuits Vol. SC-8, Number 1, January 1973; PA1 Shibata et al IEEE Trans. Vol. PHP 12, No. 3 Sept. 1976; PA1 R. C. Smith "Review of Photodetectors" Proc IEEE Oct 1980 pp 1247-1253; PA1 D. P. Schinke et al "Semi-conductor Devices" Vol 38 of "Tropics in Applied Physics" Edited by H. Kressel; PA1 J. Ya-Min "Reduction of Leakage Currents . . . etc" Electron Devices Trans IEEE Vol. ED-28 #4 April 1981; PA1 Puterbaugh & Emmons "A New Printing Principle" Spring Joint Computer Conference 1967 pp 12-124 of Proceedings; PA1 Gordon E. Challeen "Development of Thermographic Paper and Methods" Paper #4-6 of 3M; PA1 Heat Sensitive Copy Sheet--U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,093 granted to O'Leary on Dec. 3, 1974; and, PA1 United Technologies Electronics Group of Hartford, Conn. had an advertisement in the Nov. 5, 1981 edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled "Tomorrow's Pencil" in which an instrument with some memory capabilities was hypothesized.
In addition to the foregoing patents, the following non-patent references are also believed to be relevant: